Griffin, Lord of the Trolls

The statement below, by Nick Cass, was published on the British Democracy Forum on 2 January 2011. It is consonant with my own view that Griffin is a coward, who dare not engage personally with his critics lest his moral bankruptcy be exposed. Instead he relies upon a troll army of ignorant sycophants to spread disinformation on the web, under a cloak of anonymity.

These slaves are as cowardly, and contemptible, as their master.

The statement now follows.

Thanks for the lengthy discussion on my decision to stand alongside Eddy Butler in the recent leadership challenge.

But I am not looking for forgiveness as I have done nothing wrong and I have not made any mistakes. I always conduct myself professionally and unlike our opposition in this internal election, I did not lower myself to personal insults even though I was on the receiving end of them on a blog. I still support Eddy Butlers appeals for financial transparency in both the party and Trafalgar Club. Something which is normal in most members clubs from knitting to the squash club I used to play for, who used to provide visible accounts for its members yearly.

How terrible am I, wanting to see where the members money has gone when the party is in financial chaos. It would be irresponsible if I didnt question what was going on. My loyalty is with the party and when I dont get straight answers from a party of 'honesty' it sets alarm bells ringing.

My argument on a personal level briefly mentioned in the speech I gave, was an example of how the party treats its long standing and dedicated members.It is an issue I feel very strongly about, as most are volunteers. We wont get very far ditching our most dedicated people and treating them in a way almost designed to push them out of the party. But that is exactly what happens and has done scores of times, with scores of decent people.

I sent letter after letter to party HQ and deputy leader Simon Darby outlining issues I had with the way the party had dealt with certain issues. Some relating to me, and some relating to the general membership. After nearly 20years of party activism and membership you would have thought they would have wrote back or contacted me. But no, all my letters were ignored.

What kind of party treats its members - its volunteers, let alone people like my family who have sacrificed so much for the party, and have never done anything other than be ambassadors for the party. Their behaviour was almost designed to get my back up - which it did. But my own personal experiences were not the cause of my support for Eddy.

I sent a letter to Nick Griffin before I decided to stand alongside Eddy asking him to meet up and discuss Eddy's financial questions and other issues relating to his campaign for leadership. I said i would withdraw my support if he addressed the issues Eddy was campaigning on. He never replied, although he did reply when I sent him a letter about the blog set up which was obviously done by someone close to nick.

I have never left the BNP and have continued my membership because it is the party closest to what I believe in. But as for dedicating my time, money and good family image to a party who has no respect for its members -that simply wont happen.

If Nick Griffin wants to cantact me to discuss this I am quite happy to meet him and maybe we can sort this out once some of the questions I have are answered. But the ball is in his court as I have already tried.

Last thing. If you dont have the bottle to use your real name, dont be surprised if I dont bother putting write all the tripe people have to say about me.

No time for false names. Slag me off when you have grown some balls.

Cheers, happy new year.

Nick

[ENDS]

Scott McLean: Griffin, you need professional help

Statement by Scott McLean

BNP member for 20 yrs

Scottish Organiser 1990-2007

Deputy Chairman 2002-2007

Candidate for the party in numerous Scottish, Westminster, and European elections, including 2010 General Election.

In my time as a party member, candidate and office holder I've experienced many situations. These ranged from the day to day activities of paper-selling and leafleting, to the serious business of running election campaigns in my region and the party's National Disciplinary Officer. As the party's youngest Regional Organiser in the early nineties I built up Scotland as the largest region in the whole of the party. I would like to think that the then party chairman John Tyndall, held me in high regard. As a region we didn't ask Central Office for anything. We just got on with the job. Scotland is and always has been the hardest place for the party to do well due to various circumstances.

Around the early Nineties the party was treading on water elsewhere in Britain. We had some success in London using techniques pioneered by a relatively young Eddy Butler. Apart from that, nationalism in the BNP reminded me of the brick wall and head equation. I knew something had to be done to move the party forward. No disrespect for the party leader John Tyndall. His outlook was more on the past than the future.

I read many articles from many people on Nationalism and discussed these with a couple of close comrades. After identifying two or three people who might fit the bill we decided to pursue two candidates. We made contact and arranged to meet them. Nick Griffin was by far the most impressive of the candidates. At the time I hasten to add we were looking for some new blood and new ideas and a possible leader for the future. At that time there was no one who could have fulfilled the leaders role if anything happened to John Tyndall. Nick did fit the bill and we hoped he liked what we had to say.

Anyway Nick took a look at the party and saw it's potential. A short time after that he became involved.

In 1999 circumstances led to Nick making a leadership challenge. In my opinion he had no option. Modernisers in the party myself included felt that the party was being held back by not embracing new techniques that had proved successful for our elections guru Eddy butler. He hadn't got the proper backing with finance and manpower when he needed it most. Nick was put forward as the candidate for change. His campaign manager was Tony Lecomber in the South with myself in the north. Mr Tyndall thought Nick had no chance although we new different. I advised Nick and his campaign manager Tony to run a clean fight. It was a credit to nationalism and internal democracy that they did. Mr Tyndall's camp ran a dirty campaign which I didn't expect from him. John Tyndall was a man of great honour and I thought he lost some of that in his campaign tactics. He was a great friend to me and I never saw him in the same light again after that. In defeat he was offered Honorary Presidency of the party, a lifetime seat on the ruling council and a party pension. He refused.

John Tyndall thought that the BNP was his and he found out the hard way that he was only a part of the machine. The BNP is all of ours. There is not one person who is or ever could be bigger than the machine, that spirit inhabits all of us and is to share amongst its beholders.

John Tyndall who should have been one of the great heroes that had guided our movement, is now in some eyes not that man. When time comes it comes and there is no will on earth that can stop it. Have the vision to accept that.

I have been in someway involved ever since in the party. I do not regret helping to elect our current Chairman. He was just what we needed at the time and I do still hold him in high regard.

Our new leader had many talents. There were however some decisions he should leave to others. Nick has never been good at management that's why he knows he needs a helping hand at that task. Nick is a politician and he should stick to that. Every problem I've seen in this party is due to the wrong people being given jobs normally because of who they are, not of what they can do. We've seen masses of talent get thrown out or leave the party. Ask yourself how many management people or officers are now gone because of policy disagreements? Very little. They are all gone due to mismanagement. Ask yourself why the party finances are a complete shambles? Lots of money going through over the years. Misspent and thrown away on stupid misguided actions. I say to you Nick, that you would have fired yourself, from where I'm standing. Your wrong actions have purged this party, our party of the best that we had. You take every bit of criticism as a personal attack. It's fair enough to say you have the hardest job in the country, but let people help you. The right people. There are plenty of people, managers, accountants, fundraisers, strategists and just plain people with common sense who are in this party. It's our party. We want to help.

First we have to get rid of the stranglehold we're in, no naming names. If you can't see that this party needs politicians to engage in politics, accountants to deal with the accounts etc. Our people appointed no one else. Our members.

Why are you so scared and employing underhand tactics when someone is left with no option than to stand for leader? It's disgraceful! And if Eddy Butler doesn't succeed in being nominated then what? Will we all go away and live happily ever after? You are too clever not to see what is on the horizon. I've seen you make many wrong calls over the years. No one could call them all right. I'm not saying that. We all need help. Even when there is a mess to clean up. All I'm saying is dialogue gets you everywhere, in silence we are sunk. It might be time to step upstairs, politics for politicians. Don't let your honour [What honour? AE] pass under the bridge Nick.

There are many, many good people who feel this way. I've been asked to mention a few although I'm not going to. There are plenty of so called Griffinites out there many in staff positions and organisers, officers of the party to scared to say what they feel. That certainly doesn't make me proud. Remind me is that not why we fight? To be able to say what we see?

For the party

Scott McLean

My enemy's enemy is my friend

Europe far right courts Israel in anti-Islam Drive

Reuters - Monday 20th December 2010 - 2:55pm GMT

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS: Far-right political parties in Europe are stepping up their anti-Muslim rhetoric and forging ties across borders, even going so far as to visit Israel to hail the Jewish state as a bulwark against militant Islam.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen has shocked the French political elite in recent days by comparing Muslims who pray outside crowded mosques -- a common sight during the holy month of Ramadan -- to the World War Two Nazi occupation.

Oskar Freysinger, a champion of the Swiss ban on minarets, warned a far-right meeting in Paris Saturday against "the demographic, sociological and psychological Islamisation of Europe". German and Belgian activists also addressed the crowd.

Geert Wilders, whose populist far-right party supports the Dutch minority government, told Reuters last week he was organising an "international freedom alliance" to link grass-roots groups active in "the fight against Islam."

Earlier this month, Wilders visited Israel and backed its West Bank settlements, saying Palestinians there should move to Jordan. Like-minded German, Austrian, Belgian, Swedish and other far-rightists were on their own Israel tour at the same time.

"Our culture is based on Christianity, Judaism and humanism and (the Israelis) are fighting our fight," Wilders told Reuters in Amsterdam last week. "If Jerusalem falls, Amsterdam and New York will be next."

While he seeks anti-Muslim allies abroad, Wilders said some older far-right parties [sic] such as France's National Front or the British National Party were "blunt racist parties I don't care for" and he would avoid cooperating with them.

CONCERN ABOUT SOVEREIGNTY

Campaigns aimed at Muslims have been gaining ground in Europe, most notably with the Swiss minaret ban last year and France's law this year against full facial veils in public, which Wilders said the Netherlands should copy next year.

Support for these steps has spread beyond anti-immigrant parties and towards the political centre as globalisation and the ageing of Europe's population fuel voters' concerns about national sovereignty, according to a leading French analyst.

Political scientist Dominique Reynie said the financial crisis had prompted more voters to agree with the far right that their political elites were incompetent.

"Some people refuse what they see as a change in their cultural or religious surroundings," he told the Paris daily Le Monde. "These are the problems posed by mosques, burqas and the provisions of halal food."

Some on the far right see similar trends in the United States. Wilders attended a rally in New York on September 11 to protest against a mosque planned near Ground Zero and the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Strache, has said he wants to visit the United States to meet leaders of the Tea Party movement.

Marine Le Pen, who is preparing to succeed her father Jean-Marie as head of the National Front, had in recent years toed a more moderate line before her anti-Muslim comments. She notably refused to echo the anti-Semitic views expressed by her father.

Sunday, she insisted all public subsidies for building mosques must stop. Several politicians and Muslim leaders have said Muslims often pray in the street because they do not have enough space in mosques and urged that more be built.

NEW FAR RIGHT

The rightists' Israel visits set what some analysts call the "new far right" apart from older extremists who were often anti-Semitic and backed Arab countries against the Jewish state.

Declaring support for Israel gives them an opportunity to oppose Muslim opinion in their home countries, since European Muslims are often pro-Palestinian, as well as celebrate the Jewish state as the front line against militant Islam.

"It is not Israel's duty to provide a Palestinian state," Wilders said in a speech in Tel Aviv. "There already is a Palestinian state and that state is Jordan."

A so-called "Jerusalem Declaration" issued by four other European rightists during their Israel visit also staunchly defended the country's existence and its right to defend itself "against all aggression, especially Islamic terror."

Heinz-Christian Strache from Austria, German Freedom Party head Rene Stadtkewitz, Sweden Democrat MP Kent Ekeroth and Filip Dewinter, head of Belgium's Vlaams Belang party, denied they were stoking Islamophobia with their statement.

"The Arab-Israeli conflict illustrates the struggle between Western culture and radical Islam," Dewinter said in Tel Aviv.

Strache made a similar link to Europe, telling a conference in Ashkelon -- a city that has been hit by rockets from the nearby Gaza Strip -- that Israel faced "an Islamic terror threat that aims right for the heart of our society."

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz accused the rightists of "trading in their Jewish demon-enemy for the Muslim criminal-immigrant model" and visiting Israel only to get "Jewish absolution that will bring them closer to political power."

[ENDS]

No porridge for Griffin says Tory Boy

Conservative Home, September 07, 2010

Sending Nick Griffin to jail would hand the BNP a lifeline

By James Bethell, Director of NothingBritish.com

Not many defendants at the High Court actually want a night in prison but when Nick Griffin stands in the High Court today he will be praying for a bit of bird. Because martyrdom (or at least a few nights in the clink) is the only way he can redeem himself after a catastrophic year of electoral disappointment, financial mismanagement, egotistical bullying and political marginalisation.

Griffin emerged from the general election as a lame duck whose moral authority is irretrievably dented by his failure to make an effective case on behalf of Britain’s angry white lower-middle class, as witnessed during that Question Time debate, despite a recession, an unpopular war and record-levels of immigration. His organisation, once cited as an energetic example of Obama-style participation politics, is divided by factions and unhappiness.

After building up a substantial election war-chest during the post-Euro-election hubris, the BNP has blown its nest-egg on legal fees fighting an unnecessary, unwinnable battle against the Equality and Rights Commission over its whites-only membership policy. Griffin’s erratic leadership style has driven out hard-working lieutenants, he has failed to make an impact in the European Parliament and he spends his days writing daily begging letters to his disenchanted membership. And yet the BNP’s one-sided constitution gives Griffin an unassailable role.

Today’s court appearance epitomises Griffin’s self-destructive, egotistical leadership style, and the central role Griffin’s personal views on race have played in limiting the appeal of the BNP. The EHRC litigation handed Griffin a valid excuse to abandon the distasteful whites-only membership requirement and create a powerful “Clause 4” moment that redefined the BNP as a popular nationalist party capable of breaking out of the BNP’s electoral ghetto.

Instead, a committed fascist with a ethno-centric view of the world, Griffin sought to turn this case into a symbolic battle against the forces of political correctness, a struggle that had no resonance in the media, freedom of speech zealots or even his own members. Predictably the case has resulted in an embarrassing, costly defeat which even Griffin’s spin-machine can hardly defend.

As the case has progressed and Griffin’s tactics have grown increasingly desperate, the courts have become understandably frustrated by his slippery, schoolboy antics. However much Judge Paul Collins is tempted to teach Griffin a lesson, he should take a chill pill. Because the BNP are a busted flush. And about the only thing that could get them back in business is the martyrdom of their flawed leader.

BNP becoming insignificant?

EDL has 'left BNP a mere sideshow'

By Martin Bright, December 16, 2010, The Jewish Chronicle

The head of Britain's leading anti-fascist organisation has said the English Defence League has replaced the British National Party as the major force on the far right of British politics.

Nick Lowles of Searchlight said the BNP had become a "sideshow" since the crushing defeat of its leader Nick Griffin in Barking at this year's general election.

In recent months, he said, the EDL's anti-Muslim message had given the party a wider appeal. At the same time, the violence EDL rallies attracted meant the organisation received a great deal of media attention.

He added that the BNP were stuck with an old-fashioned neo-fascist image which alienated many who were prepared to back the EDL.

Mr Lowles has made it clear that Searchlight will no longer limit its operations to the fight against traditional neo-Nazi organisations. In the new year it will launch a think tank to examine new forms of extremism such as the anti-Muslim politics of the EDL and totalitarian Islamism.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, is the controversial cleric who was first invited and then "uninvited" by the EDL, allegedly on the grounds of his racism and homophobia. In August this year, giving a deposition in a court case in which he was a witness, Mr Jones described Judaism as "a religion of the devil", along with Hinduism and Buddhism.

Gainesville is best known as the home of the University of Florida, where there are about 2,000 Jews in the year-round community with three congregations, Conservative, Reform and Jewish Renewal to serve them. On the campus itself, Hillel and Chabad-Lubavitch cater for nearly 7,000 Jewish students.

According to Rabbi Berl Goldman, co-director of the Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Centre on campus, Pastor Jones is not even on the local community's radar. He said: "I've been here 10 years and I don't know of any formal ties or relationship between Jones and faith-based organisations. I've never seen him at any meetings of the Campus Ministry Co-operative which has representatives of all different faiths and denominations in Gainesville. The Jewish community is very distressed at his provocative actions."

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Centre (the Montgomery, Alabama-based civil rights organisation) confirmed that Pastor Jones is extremely isolated. "I very much doubt if he has connections with anyone except a dozen or so followers."

[ENDS]

Open letter to Mr Griffin, BNP leader

Dear Mr Griffin

You know as well as, if not better than, I, that all is far from well with the British National Party. In fact, the BNP is slowly dying: from insolvency; declining membership; the largely self-inflicted loss of its most capable and dedicated officers, elected representatives, and activists; and plummeting morale consequent upon the foregoing factors, as well as upon the growing inability to contest elections effectively, and upon the disappointing results obtained in most of those few that are fought.

This is probably not an exhaustive list.

Well, leaving aside for a moment the question of responsibility for all these woes, what is to be done to turn the situation around?

You may point to the reforms outlined at the recent party conference.

They are superficial, with the exception of the proposed change in the constitution to allow the national chairman a four year term of office, eliminating even the theoretical possibility of a leadership election. None of it really addresses the root of the problem.

What is the root of the problem?

Well, a large part of it is your style of leadership, I'm sorry to have to say. You want the public, the electorate, to believe that the BNP is a democratic, and respectable, political party, and that you personally are a democrat, rather than a fascist, yet your every action as leader belies the party's and your own pretensions in this regard.

You seem to get very twitchy if anyone so much as asks a question about the accounts, for example. Are there not questions to be answered, though?

Of course there are. Why have you been unable to appoint, and retain, a party treasurer who is able to maintain adequate financial records? This is not a complex task. It merely requires a certain basic knowledge of book-keeping, rather than advanced accountancy. The party has a number of members with skills, qualifications, and experience, in this discipline, yet you seem to be unwilling to use them, preferring to keep pliant and incompetent yes-men in the nominal position of party treasurer. This naturally begs the question: for what reason?

Then again, why do you become so twitchy at the prospect of a leadership election, when, as the incumbent, the odds are in your favour anyway? Why do you feel it necessary to victimize, and to treat so unfairly, and harshly, not only any serious challenger, but his supporters as well? One might conclude that you dare not take even the smallest chance of being ousted democratically, for fear that your successor would be in a position to discover facts which you wish to remain suppressed.

You cannot imagine that the disquietude within the party, since its poor showing at the general election, has gone unnoticed by the media. If they have largely held their fire up to now, that is no guarantee that they will continue to remain silent. Can you imagine how damaging to the party's electoral prospects an expose by the BBC of the party's oppression of its own activists, and bilking of its suppliers, (many of whom are loyal members who now regret having trusted the party) would be? The lack of proper financial record-keeping would also do more than raise eyebrows, I can assure you.

If you are interested in reuniting the BNP, rather than presiding over its terminal decline, I suggest that you reply publicly to this letter, as the beginning of a dialogue between yourself and those, such as Eddy Butler, and myself, who wish for reform of a more substantive nature than was outlined at the recent party conference, which as you know we, with others who have criticized your leadership, were prevented from attending.

While I cannot speak for Eddy, in this regard, I can assure you that my interest in and involvement with the BNP will not end in the event of my unjust expulsion from the party. John Tyndall was right when he said, at the 1998 party rally, that all progress comes from struggle.

Since BNP membership has been held to be valueless by the party's legal representative in open court, non-members of the party are appointed to senior positions within it, and considered as candidates for important parliamentary by-elections, some might wonder why I would wish to remain a member of a party that treats its own members so badly.

You know the answer to that though, don't you? It's because I have a vision of what the party could be, and achieve, were it to be properly led. I used to believe that you too had the same, or a similar vision.

Was I wrong to have once believed in you?

Yours faithfully

Dr Andrew Emerson

Martin Webster says: don't be fooled by Griffin flummery

EHRC defeat in ‘Contempt’ case NOT a "Victory for Free Speech"

A BNP member has e-mailed me to suggest that the outcome of today’s Contempt of Court case brought against Nick Griffin and the British National Party by the Equality and Human Rights Commission was a further instance of the Establishment helping Griffin.

I do not agree with that reaction, and have replied as follows:

--------------

This morning’s result in the High Court in which Griffin was found Not Guilty of “Contempt of Court” is NOT an instance of “The Hidden Hand” protecting him (as it has done before).

The hearing today was NOT on a matter of principle, but only on legal technicalities.

Griffin has NOT won a fight to allow the BNP to keep its original constitution which restricted membership to indigenous White people.

He surrendered that principle at a very early stage of this litigation. All sides agreed about that during this morning’s hearing, as BBC Radio 4 has reported.

On that point Griffin told BNP members in one of his bulletins (when complaining about the EHRC keeping the litigation going):

“We’ve given them everything they’ve asked for....”

The EHRC went to the High Court today to get him/the BNP punished for not abiding by the undertakings he gave to the lower court to change the BNP constitution to allow the party to have a multi-racial membership and to give effect to those changes.

The High Court, apparently, has decided that he has not reneged on his promises given to lower courts to open up the BNP to a multi-racial membership.

So he has NOT won a “victory” for free speech, freedom of association, the “freedom to be ourselves” or any other such thing as he now claims. He SURRENDERED those points of principle a year ago at the County Court hearings.

In my bulletin of Saturday 20th November I commented:


[quote]
However low my opinion is of Gri££in, I want the Equality and Human Rights Commission to lose its current litigation against the BNP so that a matter of principle may be upheld, i.e.:

That in a democracy, the government and its agencies have no right to dictate the terms of the constitutions of political parties, and thereby to dictate their policies. The sole judge on those kinds of matters should be the electorate.

I fear the EHRC may win because the BNP has not fought the case on this matter of principle. It surrendered that principle at an early stage, as Gri££in admitted in a bulletin to members deploring the EHRC’s continuation with the case, in which he said: “We’ve given them everything they demanded....”

Gri££in has only fought the case on a sequence of technical issues and not on the issue that in a democracy a political party has the right to regulate its membership recruitment in accordance with its lawful political objectives.
[end quote]


Unfortunately, today Griffin did NOT seek to reverse his earlier surrender of the point of principle. He merely sought to prove that he has done what he promised the EHRC he would do.

The BNP can now expect the EHRC and its agents provocateurs to continually test whether the party is allowing non-Whites to join the party and influence its policy objectives in equality with indigenous White British people. If he/the party obstructs that process, then he/the party will be back before the courts again to face “contempt” charges. In a statement broadcast by the BBC, the EHRC promised that very thing.

It is necessary to keep your eye on the ball, not on Griffin’s empty “Victory” announcements.

Islamophile teacher persecutes Christian schoolchildren

Here we see just one example of the endemic, Establishment-endorsed, creeping Islamification of Britain. Observe, if you will, the typically mealy-mouthed response of the county education authority to the righteous fury and complaints of the parents of the persecuted children.

This teacher should be suspended at once, pending a disciplinary hearing, by her employer. She should also be reported for professional misconduct to the General Teaching Council (GTC).

In the final analysis there is only one way to end this forced imposition of an alien faith on our children: to vote for the British National Party, whenever and wherever possible.


Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel in class and pray to Allah

Posted by EU Times on Nov 15th, 2010.

Alsager School, near Stoke, has received furious complaints from parents after two Year 7 boys were punished for refusing to kneel to Allah during a religious studies class.

Two British schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and ‘pray to Allah’ during a religious education lesson.

Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent – which included wearing Muslim headgear –was a breach of their human rights.

One parent, Sharon Luinen, said: “This isn’t right, it’s taking things too far.

“I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn’t join in Muslim prayer.

“Making them pray to Allah, who isn’t who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.

“I don’t want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it.”

Another parent Karen Williams said: “I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don’t find it acceptable.

“I haven’t got a problem with them teaching my child other religions and a small amount of information doesn’t do any harm.

“But not only did they have to pray, the teacher had gone into the class and made them watch a short film and then said ‘we are now going out to pray to Allah’.

“Then two boys got detention and all the other children missed their refreshment break because of the teacher.

“Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right.

“They’d never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language.

“My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson.”

The grandfather of one of the pupils in the class said: “It’s absolutely disgusting, there’s no other way of putting it.

“My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn’t do it they were given detention.

“I am not racist, I’ve been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I’ve also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that.

“But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war.”

Parents said that their children were made to bend down on their knees on prayer mats which the RE teacher had got out of her cupboard and they were also told to wear Islamic headgear during the lesson on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy headmaster Keith Plant said: “It’s difficult to know at the moment whether this was part of the curriculum or not. I am not an RE teacher, I am an English teacher.

“At the moment it is our enterprise week and many of our members of staff are away.

“The particular member of staff you need to speak to isn’t around. I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the Press before coming to me.

“I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment.”

A statement from Cheshire County Council on behalf of the school read: “The headteacher David Black contacted this authority immediately complaints were received.

“Enquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency and all parents will be informed accordingly.

“Educating children in the beliefs of different faith [sic] is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding.

“We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity.”

John Tyndall prophesies New Leadership

John Tyndall, the first leader of the British National Party, would have had no truck with a tacky heart-shaped logo, and other, similarly tasteless gimmicks, by means of which Griffin seeks to ape the traitor-parties of the rotten Establishment he is so desperate to be allowed to join. No, John Tyndall was a genuine nationalist, as well as a decent, honest and upright English gentleman. What a pity that no-one can truthfully say that Griffin is any of these things.

When is Griffin going to realize that turning the BNP into a pale copy of the UKIP is the road to ruin, not his coveted seat in the corridors of power?

When is Griffin going to wake up to the fact that a heart-shaped logo just isn't going to cut it - with anyone other than his payroll-flunkeys? Even they are probably laughing at it behind his back.

Certainly, the electorate of Oldham East and Saddleworth are likely to be profoundly unimpressed. The BBC intends to see to that with an expose of the BNP's shameful victimization of its own activists, and chronic financial mismanagement, on Griffin's watch, early next month: just far enough away from polling day in the by-election for them to be able speciously to claim not to be unfairly disadvantaging candidate Griffin.

Griffin is the author of his own, as well as the BNP's misfortune. He has provided the BBC with all the ammunition it needs to cripple the BNP electorally, just as he has also provided the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) with all the ammunition IT needed to cripple the BNP financially. Is Griffin malignant, or monumentally incompetent, or both? That is an open question, but one to which many BNP members will be demanding an answer in the months to come.

The solution to the BNP's strategic problem is, contra Griffin, not for the party to become part of the mainstream, by concession after policy concession, but to win through by making the mainstream become part of our stream. The objective conditions have rarely been more favourable for political progress by a nationalist party.

In order to turn the situation to account, however, the party must be united, and not demoralized and divided, as at present. Griffin has shown himself to be either incapable, or (for whatever private reason) unwilling, to reunite and re-launch the party.

Consequently, Griffin must go, and go quickly. Even those who have, largely out of ignorance or fear, supported him up to now, should finally see the writing on the wall, and distance themselves from him, and his unforgivable betrayal of the BNP. If they fail, even at this the eleventh hour, to do so, then they may expect to take their share of the inevitable opprobrium that will deservedly be his when he falls, as fall he must.

If Griffin now expects the Establishment to pat him on the head, rub his tummy, and toss a choccy treat into the air for him to catch in his mouth, he is likely to be bitterly disappointed. All that will happen, as a result of the changes announced at the party conference last weekend, is that the party's decline in membership will accelerate, and the crucially important morale of its activists continue to decline.

Was it for this that the heroes of nationalism, was it for this that Albert Mariner, suffered martyrdom? Was it so that Griffin could bring the BNP to the brink of bankruptcy, gut it of its best and bravest, and turn it into a cross between his personal fan club, an apolitical cultural association, and a collection agency for donations to obscure 'causes'?

In one way, though, the BNP's new heart logo IS emblematic: a phoney emblem, dodgy accounts, and a phoney make-over, for a party with a phoney nationalist for a leader. What else would one expect?